BJP, Indian Marxists should stop talking about 1857

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 August 2015, 17:39 GMT]When the 1857 rebellion in India broke out against British imperialism and when the British tried to degrade it as mere ‘Sepoy Mutiny’, Marx and Engels, then writing from London, based on reports that took months to come via sea, saw the point that it was not Mutiny, but the “First War of Indian Independence.” Decades later, Veer Savarkar, one of the founders of the Hindu Mahasabah, the forerunner of the RSS, Jan Sangh and today's BJP, wrote a book, “The Volcano” to describe 1857. The BJP, Indian Marxists and the so-called Indian nationalists have no right to speak about 1857, the Jallianwala Bagh of the 1919 etc., when they fail to see the genocide of the nation of Eezham Tamils for imperialistic purposes and the historical righteousness of their struggle that has faced all the imperialisms of the present times, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.

Some pseudo Marxists among Eezham Tamils try to project their history of the militant struggle as Ku'runtheasiya-vaatham (narrow nationalism) and they are regarded as the remaining rationalists of that nation by a section of Tamil Nadu activists.

Even though some Indian historians also regarded the Sepoy Mutiny as a resistance of feudal elements, they didn't fail to see its importance in the struggle against global imperialism.

The last stages of the militant struggle of Eezham Tamils, how imperialisms directed and handled it then and after 2009, and the unfolding scenario of their deliberations in international forums such as the UNHRC should tell everyone the significance of the struggle of Eezham Tamils against a backdrop of the re-enactment of imperialist interest in the region.

Today's imperialisms care for short-term interests and they don't care for the deep ‘volcano’ mounting up in global Tamils just because they don't have a State.

New Delhi imperialism, whether of the Congress or BJP, not caring is understandable. But, the Marxists and the subalterns in India should not fail.

Unfortunately, a section of the former Tamil militants and their supporters has also not realised the universal significance of the struggle they waged and failed to present it in the right perspective and right shade of polity, commented the activists for alternative politics.